Six-cylinder M.G. Magna. A slightly better quality (now legible) than the version that I posted previously. Artist, Max Millar.

The Magna image is now legible enough for me to read "Twin Top Gear". Enlighten me, please...As I write this, I'm thinking of a side valve Hillman Minx my father had (~1948, maybe) with a gearbox provided by the manufacturer featuring 3 speeds plus underdrive; laughingly referred to as a 4 speed gearbox.

The other book is the Eagle book of Cutaways found one on abebooks for 0.66 pound! It is worth very penny!

Paul

Those two books are the real treasure houses for Eagle cutaways, but there are two others that have some as well - neither are just cutaways, but there are some nice images in them. They are The Best of Eagle Annual (1951-1959) and The Eagle Annual - The Best of the 1960s Comic.

The Magna image is now legible enough for me to read "Twin Top Gear". Enlighten me, please...As I write this, I'm thinking of a side valve Hillman Minx my father had (~1948, maybe) with a gearbox provided by the manufacturer featuring 3 speeds plus underdrive; laughingly referred to as a 4 speed gearbox.

Hmm, I don't really know. It is very much the beautiful language of the 1930's I think.

But I think you are on the right track with your tale of the Minx. The 'Four-speed gear box with silent third'!

I think in the case of the Magna, they were very much concerned about acceleration on the hill. Hence the use of the three fairly close top ratios. (As well as a genuine fourth ratio).

Edit:

Marc has just informed me that the term 'Twin Top Gear' is perhaps misleading, and may instead refer to a type of gearbox construction, rather than the actualgearing. He is currently digging for more info.

Dug info below!

"Mark,

From reading the Autocar article, second column lower part, I gather it seems that they are referring to the construction of the gearbox.Having a second casing bolted to the main gearbox extending rearwards, done to get the lever direct and closer to hand for the driver.It seems it should really be called a “Twintop” gearbox rather than a Twin Top Gear as if there were two different ratios. It was a plain four ratio gearboxI’ve cutout the Millar cutaway part showing the gearbox with a clear bolted on extension.I don’t know for sure because I haven’t been able to find anything on the actual ratios or gearing of the box, but here and there ,there is mention that MG borrowed the box design from Wolseley.

It has been a while since I posted much here, so I have a few mixed items from my Hot Rod collection of American types that I want to include in my hypothetical book project at some point. A couple of these might have been posted before, but it is a bit different from the usual here.I am starting with the outline drawing from David Kimble that was used as the basis for his color piece on the Edmunds Coil-Over Sprint car out of 1982. The Sprint car series is one of the very popular racing series in the US, and this car was one of the real state-of-the-art pieces at the time.The color piece was to appear as a poster and in a couple of other magazines, but this preliminary line drawing was published in Circle Track magazine.Tom West

The second piece was scanned from the June, 1961 edition of Car and Driver Magazine as one of their historic articles. The Miller 91 was one of the classic US racing engines during the pre-war period, and this Clarence LaTourette illustration represented the most prominent version of the engine.Tom West

The rest of the pics I will post today are from a Brazilian designer and artist named Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza. I first saw him when he did a cutaway on a hot rod that he had designed, a very innovative car at the time that was built, I believe, in Brazil back in the 1980s. The image files here are all from a website reference that is listed in Ibesn's site index, so they may look very familiar, but they are still rather cool pieces of artwork that show some interesting hot rod concepts.The first is an Ardun-Ford Roadster from the pens of Mr. Hernandez-Mendoza. This one is dated 2011, so it is relatively recent work.Tom West

This is another Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza piece from 2011. The Torpedo body wasn't a common Ford body, which is the basis for most hot rods, so this is a very cool concept, the Ferrari V-12 Torpedo Roadster.Tom West

This is another hot rod concept from Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza, also out of 2011; a 1936 Ford Aero-Sport Roadster. I like the innovation that is shown in these pieces, and wish that more of them had been constructed.Tom West

Another very interesting concept car presented by Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza. This one is based on the 1945 Ford Zephyr, a Boattail Roadster, ala the classic Auburns or Duesenbergs out of the 1930s. This piece is also dated 2011.Tom West

Another Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza piece, possibly not as conceptual as some of the others. This appears to be the great Bill Lindig Roadster that won the Grand National Roadster show top award, World's Most Beautiful Roadster. Very cool to see something like this being done.Tom West

This classic Chopped Mercury Coupe concept was developed in 1990 by Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza. Some nice thought here for this type of car, as they tend to all be fairly classic in their concept.Tom West

This piece from 1993 represents one of the last rides for Don Prudhomme, one of the top drag racers of all time .This is his Skoal-backed Top Fuel car, which is now on display at the NHRA Museum in Pomona. I must say that there are some strange shapes on a few items in this illustration by Alberto Hernandez-Mendoza, but the impression is still pretty decent. The combination of artistic treatment and technical subject makes for an interesting drawing.Tom West

Well, I seem to have shut this place down completely again. I try to step in when I can to start things up when it gets quiet here, and seem to always have the opposite effect for some reason. I am just hoping that you guys pick it up, as has happened previously. I think that a lot of the more regular players might be running out of new material to post. When you see some of the relatively unusual subjects that come up here on occasion, it is easy to see how this is happening, so the rest of you guys will need to keep filling in with your own material. I still find it amazing to see all of the things that show up here all the time.
Hang with it here, folks, especially since the Russian site is operating, but seems to be limited in new postings, as well. Don't think it is for the same reason, however.
Thanks for listening.
T West

...and its amazing V4 Engine (you can also see world's first Dual Clutch Transmission on motorcycle!)

P.S. Tom, I think its not about competition or something with that Russian site - they are completely different to my opinion. Personally, after downloading a lot of ultrarare-never-seen-before-and-never-after stuff (made by true artists) from here it is a little shame to be able to upload only contemporary pics (like I just did) - which are not that valuable and are essentially simple webfinds. But let me assure you - your call for reinforcements will always be heard here;-)

About author - looks like first five of these cutaways are still based on the decades-old original handcrafted drawing of EJ-series engine by Makoto Ouchi (the different CG-versions of intake manifolds, plumbings, etc., are clearly have been superimposed later).

...and its amazing V4 Engine (you can also see world's first Dual Clutch Transmission on motorcycle!)

P.S. Tom, I think its not about competition or something with that Russian site - they are completely different to my opinion. Personally, after downloading a lot of ultrarare-never-seen-before-and-never-after stuff (made by true artists) from here it is a little shame to be able to upload only contemporary pics (like I just did) - which are not that valuable and are essentially simple webfinds. But let me assure you - your call for reinforcements will always be heard here;-)

Ventro,I find it interesting to see the different material that appears from everyone, so I enjoy that aspect of this group; there are so many that contribute over time, and it isn't just the same guys. At a certain point, you sort of run out after a while, so the other guys who bring in everything from aircraft to Japanese Movie Monsters just help keep the thought of the Cutaway Drawing alive. Thanks for your contributions and your involvement. and to you all.Tom West

I just looked up the Deutch-Bonnet, and this is, indeed, the Monomill of 1954. It was built with a Panhard 500cc opposed twin engine mounted out front of the front axle, which seemed like it would give it a bit of a strange handling, but it seemed like a lot of these things from that era probably had similar characteristics. I gather it wasn't overly successful with the Panhard running against some of the more powerful JAP and Norton-engined cars, having only 35hp to work with. The company was much more successful with their little GT and sports coupes. They did come up with an interesing race series that was built around their existing Formula Junior, the car now identified as the Monomill. The drivers in this championship series would lease the cars for a particular race, to be supplied on-site by D-B, who would hold a lottery to see who got what car. Gather there was some interesting racing out of this concept, and the premier race, with a few big name guest drivers, was won by Jo Schlesser. The series was to expand for 1955, but met with the year-long ban of all motorsports in France following the huge LeMans crash of that year. Only two races would be run, leading to major financial problems for the company who sold their cars off to cover debts, ending the D-B association.

Just thought you might like to see a bit of the story on this rather interesting little singleseater.

I am not sure what to say about the Index, and all of the work that seems to have been lost. I am thinking that this still puts you in the ballpark, but it may be 5-6 pages off. Tough to justify asking Ibsen to go back and straighten it out. Is there any way we can ask the site to use the same number of messages per page that they used before. That should be possible, shouldn't it? Don't know how such things work, but I hope an easy fix can be incorporated as I use the Index fairly often, and think it really makes this much more valuable as a resource. Sorry that this had to happen, so let's hope it is not irretrievable.

I just looked up the Deutch-Bonnet, and this is, indeed, the Monomill of 1954. It was built with a Panhard 500cc opposed twin engine mounted out front of the front axle, which seemed like it would give it a bit of a strange handling, but it seemed like a lot of these things from that era probably had similar characteristics. I gather it wasn't overly successful with the Panhard running against some of the more powerful JAP and Norton-engined cars, having only 35hp to work with. The company was much more successful with their little GT and sports coupes. They did come up with an interesing race series that was built around their existing Formula Junior, the car now identified as the Monomill. The drivers in this championship series would lease the cars for a particular race, to be supplied on-site by D-B, who would hold a lottery to see who got what car. Gather there was some interesting racing out of this concept, and the premier race, with a few big name guest drivers, was won by Jo Schlesser. The series was to expand for 1955, but met with the year-long ban of all motorsports in France following the huge LeMans crash of that year. Only two races would be run, leading to major financial problems for the company who sold their cars off to cover debts, ending the D-B association.

Just thought you might like to see a bit of the story on this rather interesting little singleseater.

I agree with Tom - even though sometimes duplicates get posted because the index is so large and we look in the wrong place, it is a very valuable tool. And, it actually doesn't necessarily have to go into the trash.

Werks' idea about dividing the existing number by 1.25 is a great idea. For those of us who don't do arithmetic functions easily in our heads (even though my undergraduate degree was mathematics), the same result is achieved by multiplying by 0.8 (which I can do in my head). 10 ÷ 1.25 = 8 = 0.8 x 10 Dropping the remaining decimal will probably give the correct page most of the time.

So, if any entries into the index going forward were numbered New-number (e.g., New-257, or n257, or whatever), we could continue to use the index. New, prefaced numbers would be the page indicated, numbers without a prefix would be the number multiplied by 0.8.

If Ibsen still wants to "retire" (he's carried the ball for a long time, been a great asset for all of us, and certainly has a right to a life away from the forum if he so desires) we need someone to assume that responsibility. Ibsen, if you want to keep it, you do such a great job that no one would object.

I started a test trial conversion earlier today, and although I didn’t get very far before I quickly became cross-eyed with it and fell on my sword, it can be done, and is quite accurate if anyone wishes to take on the challenge, but it would take a long time I feel (A couple of months) and is a tedious process. (And Toms original 'common sense' idea keeps coming to mind, "couldn’t they just revert back to the default 40 posts per page").

I was soon defeated by the process, in terms of time etc.

However, the accuracy is fairly reliable. Whether you divide by 1.25 or as Peter states multiply by 0.8. But there does appear to be a threshold of about 0.6.

That is 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4, 22.5 would = Page 22.

And 22.7, 22.8, 22.9 would = page 23. As you would expect.

But 22.6 becomes a grey area, that you have to check manually. (Can be either page 22 or 23, as that post falls either at the end of a page or the beginning of the next). And this is really what slows the process down. And then the process is confused further by the number of posts that have been dropped or deleted in the past.

Below are the results that I got earlier.

TNF Cutaway drawing and its artists Index page 01 to page 360 (to edit to page 288#) up to post # 12763 - part A

As you can see, I barely got out of the 'A's before I was seeing double.

But Peter is right in what he says, even left as is, the index still functions as an accurate list of content. Content which is still searchable within the thread. And it was a great effort by Ibsen to maintain it so accurately for so long.